Over the Hedge
''Over the Hedgeis a 2006 computer-animated comedy film, based on the characters from United Media comic strip of the same name produced by DreamWorks Animation and currently distributed worldwide by Paramount Pictures. Plot While foraging for food, RJ encounters the hibernating bear, Vincent and his large cache of food. Rj tries to steal it, but instead causes the food to be crushed in traffic on a nearby road. Vincent threatens to kill RJ, but RJ quickly promises to replace Vincent's foodstocks within the week, when Vincent is fully awake from his hibernation. RJ discovers a nearby human suburban community, an optimal source for his task, and encounters a group of woodland creatures that have just woken up from their own hibernation in undeveloped forest that is surrounded by the community. The group is led by Verne, and it includes Hammy, Stella, Ozzie and Heather, Lou and Penny, and their kids Spike, Bucky, and Quillo. The animals quickly find that a large hedge was put in place while they were sleeping to separate them from the rest of the human development, and are afraid to venture on the other side. RJ uses the opportunity to introduce himself to the group and explain that they could have better food by scavenging off the humans. Though Verne is wary of RJ's plans and believes he may be using them, the group of animals quickly find that RJ is right, and begin raiding the human development repeatedly for food. The disappearance of food does not go unnoticed, and the development homeowner association president Gladys Sharp calls in the help of the pest control specialist Dwayne LaFontant, who installs an overpowered extermination system in her backyard while trying to track down all the animals in the world. Despite close calls with Dwayne, the group of animals continues to gather food from the humans, RJ secretly making sure the food collected will replace Vincent's stock exactly. RJ is brought in as part of the pack's extended family, making him feel guilty about hiding his true intent from them. When RJ tries to approach Verne about it, RJ cannot help but lie about the situation. A final raid planned by RJ before Vincent's deadline involves invading Gladys' home, which requires someone to distract her Persian cat Tiger; Stella is quickly groomed to look like a cat to draw Tiger's attention away. Though they're able to collect most of the food in the kitchen, RJ inadvertently reveals the truth to Verne as he tries to get a can of Spuddies, which are Vincent's favorites. During their argument, the animals are soon discovered by Gladys and Dwayne, and though RJ gets away, the other animals are all captured. RJ takes the food to Vincent, but upon seeing the other animals captured, uses the food to stop Dwayne's van and knock the human unconscious, allowing RJ to free the animals. After apologizing for using the group to his own ends, RJ helps the others drive the van back to the forest, chased by Vincent who floated on balloons, a jester and a knight on a horse. The animals try to take shelter in the hedge, with Vincent trying to claw them out from one side, and Dwayne trying to shock them with a Cattle prod and Gladys trying to use a weedwhacker on them from the other side. RJ and Verne come up with a plan to give Hammy an energy drink, which makes him move at light speed and slow time. This allows him to safely activate the extermination traps while RJ uses himself as bait to lure Vincent into Gladys' backyard (and surprisingly lives because of Verne's shell). Vincent, Gladys, and Dwayne are momentarily confused just before they're seriously stung by the Depelter Turbo, which Dwayne first warned them about and told them to prepare to get hurt. Animal control is called to take Vincent back to the Rocky Mountains, while Gladys is arrested for the use of inhumane traps, but she resists and starts a fight with the police. While this is happening, Dwayne quietly slips away and climbs over a fence, only to step on a squeaky toy and get bitten in the leg by Nugent (the same dog that chased RJ and Verne earlier). Stella finds that Tiger still has a crush on her despite knowing she is a skunk, as he has long since lost his sense of smell, and both RJ and Tiger are accepted into the group. When Verne realizes that they still need food for the winter, Hammy reveals that he stuffed their log home with nuts and he accidentally runs into the camera. Voice cast Animals * Bruce Willis as RJ, the main protagonist. * Garry Shandling as Verne, the deuteragonist. * Steve Carell as Hammy, the tritagonist. * Wanda Sykes as Stella, the secondary tritagonist. * William Shatner as Ozzie, one of the secondary protagonists. * Avril Lavigne as Heather, one of the secondary protagonists. * Nick Nolte as Vincent, the tertiary antagonist. * Eugene Levy as Lou, one of the secondary protagonists. * Catherine O'Hara as Penny, one of the secondary protagonists. * Sami Kirkpatrick as Bucky, one of the secondary protagonists. * Madison Davenport as Quillo, one of the secondary protagonists. * Shane Baumel as Spike, one of the secondary protagonists. * Omid Djalili as Tiger, one of the secondary antagonists and later, a secondary protagonist. * Brian Stepanek as Nugent, one of the secondary antagonists. * Frank Welker as Animals' vocal effects (uncredited) Humans * Allison Janney as Gladys Sharp, the main antagonist. * Thomas Haden Church as Dwayne LaFontant, the secondary antagonist. * Sean Bishop as Police Officer Reception ''Over the Hedge was screened out of competition at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. The movie's opening weekend grossed $38,457,003 in 4,093 theaters. As of February 25, 2007, the film had earned $335,204,526 worldwide. Critical reaction was mostly positive with the film being rated 73% on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review aggregate site. Critic Frank Lovece of Film Journal International found that, "DreamWorks' slapstick animated adaptation of the philosophically satiric comic strip ... is a lot of laughs and boasts a much tighter story than most animated features" Ken Fox of TVGuide.com called it "a sly satire of American 'enough is never enough' consumerism and blind progress at the expense of the environment. It's also very funny, and the little woodland critters that make up the cast are a kiddie-pleasing bunch". Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper gave the animated movie a "two thumbs up". Short film A short film called Hammy's Boomerang Adventure was released with the ''Over the Hedge'' DVD, which was released on October 17, 2006. Sequel On September 9th, 2010, DreamWorks Animation announced a sequel called "Over the Hedge 2: Aloha!" in the works with a due release on July 12th, 2014. The entire cast including Bruce Willis, Gary Shandling and Steve Carell will return and a new antagonist has been announced. The plot will involve the gang and a few new characters going to Hawaii in search of more food. The new characters are Bill, a bear who is Vincent's brother (voiced by Bill Nighy), John C Reilly as Raoul, a rabbit who loves hitting people on the head (a reference to Baby Sinclair from the sitcom Dinosaurs), Mark Hamill as Fred, a fox who loves explosions, Kristen Schaal as Janey, another raccoon who is RJ's love interest, Mike Myers as Stu, a platypus who loves stealing food from humans, Eddie Murphy as Harry, a bird who is the self proclaimed "King of Dudes" and finally Dave Foley and Hugh Jackman as Tim and Eric, two wise-cracking spiders. The sequel will be directed by Gary Trousdale and Chris Sanders. They also announced cameo appearences by characters from the Disney film Lilo and Stitch in which the original actors who played them will reprise their roles since it is co-directed by Chris Sanders. The music will be by Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell and Hans Zimmer. After the release of The Croods, the directors announced the film will be distributed by 20th Century Fox. They also announced a TV series that will air Tuesday nights on Cartoon Network replacing The Looney Tunes Show. Category:Over the Hedge Category:Movies